Broken Road
by MadnessJones
Summary: G1: Dead End talked a kid out of committing suicide and gained a new friend in the process. Can their friendship survive their families, Decepticons, and Dead End himself? Oneshot. No pairings. Sequel to "End of The Road".


_Author's Notes: I had honestly never planned to write a sequel to "End of The Road". At the time it seemed like a perfectly self-contained oneshot. A couple months ago however, I got this idea of how the friendship between Dead End and Charlie would logically go, so I wrote this oneshot. This will probably be the last one. Probably. I hope you enjoy this story, and please remember to favorite and/or review :)_

* * *

 **Broken Road**

It had been another stressful day at school for Charlie Pearson. He got whacked in the face by a basketball in gym class, one of the cheerleaders tripped him in the hall, and he got an incomplete on his math test because he forgot to sign his name. It was a fairly typical day for Charlie, but that didn't mean he felt like dealing with it.

So, there he stood out in the cold winter air waiting at the drop-off area for his mom to pick him up from school. If he was lucky she would remember, but if she had been drinking she would probably pass out and he would have to walk fourteen blocks to the bus station...again.

"Hey, Chubby Charlie! Nice catch in gym today! Hah!" Derek Miller shouted as he strolled out to the parking lot toward his new Mercedes Benz.

Charlie ignored him, just as he always did. Derek was on the track team and was always picking on Charlie. He would leave hateful comments on his Twitter page, he would call him names in person, and once he even pulled down Charlie's pants in front of a girl he liked. Charlie hated that guy, but he knew he wasn't strong enough to engage in a physical confrontation (for what little good that would do), so he just took the abuse and went on with his life.

The Volkswagen that had picked up Shirley Hinkley drove off, and the next car in line was a beautiful new maroon Lamborghini Countach. Charlie had never seen that car pick up any of the students before, and he couldn't help but whistle when he saw how snazzy it looked.

"Whoa, check out that car," He heard one of the cheerleaders say appraisingly, "Who do you think that belongs to?"

"Probably some rich kid," Another girl replied, "Maybe Kevin or Yoshi."

The Lamborghini honked impatiently, but no one got inside. Charlie looked around to see if anyone was going to get in, and then looked back at the car. Then he saw that the back end had a Decepticon logo, and suddenly everything clicked into place.

"Oh my god...It's Dead End," Charlie whispered to himself.

 _Dead End_. He didn't think he'd ever see that mech again. Two weeks prior to this moment Charlie had found himself on the St. John's Bridge on a cold icy night ready to jump into the Willamette River and end it all. He had been so tired of the ridicule and the strife that his life had become, and he just wanted peace. He was talked into living by an unlikely voice of reason; an evil Decepticon robot named Dead End who had been close to joining him in a double suicide.

Charlie was grateful that Dead End had been there to talk things through with him, and was even more grateful that the alien invader hadn't squashed him under his massive foot for daring to exist. They had agreed to be friends in the moment, but had not seen each other again since that night. Charlie assumed Dead End had better things to do than befriend some insignificant human, but apparently he was wrong.

Charlie walked toward Dead End, and the passenger door opened automatically for him. As he got inside he could hear kids whispering about him getting in the fancy dark red car. The door closed, and Charlie at first relaxed due to the warm air coming from the heaters, but then tensed up again as he realized he had just gotten inside a living organism and was now sitting inside of it as it drove way too fast down the road and wasn't even going in the right direction for his house.

"Um...Hi, Dead End," Charlie said shakily as he tried to get a hold of his nerves, "It's n-nice to see you again. What b-b-brings you by my part of the world?"

"I was bored," Dead End replied nonchalantly, "So, that was your education facility? It's a real dump."

"I know," Charlie replied quietly; not wanting to raise his voice and antagonize the mech he still barely knew, "So...what do you want to do?"

"I want to dissect you for research and probe your aft," Dead End deadpanned.

" _What_!?" Charlie screamed in shock.

"Relax kid, I'm joking," Dead End replied in amusement, much to Charlie's relief, "Seriously though, you humans are way too full of yourselves. I just watched an alien invasion movie marathon, and every one of them involved humans having something the aliens wanted or being special in some way. Seriously, if it weren't for your planet's energy this entire mudball would be useless."

"Good to know," Charlie replied flatly as he wrapped his coat closer around his body for warmth, "Um, do you need directions to my house?"

"Why would I go there? From what I understand your parents are boring and ignore you," Dead End replied.

"Oh, come on! I can't go joyriding whenever I want!" Charlie keened, "I need to get home so I can do my homework and take a shower. I always sneak out of gym class without showering because I don't like to get naked in front of the other guys. I think my coach might be onto me though."

"Well there's about ten pleasant images," Dead End replied sarcastically, "Fine. I'll take you home. Give me your address and I'll look it up on my GPS computer."

"Thank you," Charlie replied gratefully before giving Dead End his address.

As they drove along Charlie was nervous. He needed to get home and this was the only way, but he was also painfully aware that he had given his home address to a Decepticon terrorist. If this didn't get him locked up for treason it would at least get him nominated for a Darwin Award.

They made it to Charlie's house and Dead End opened the passenger door immediately; not even bothering to shut off his engine.

"Well, it was good to see you again, Dead End," Charlie said somewhat awkwardly, "Drive safely."

"You actually care that I might get into a hideous multi-car pileup and die?" Dead End asked impishly, "My my, Charlie. I didn't know you cared. Now I'm almost glad I didn't step on you."

As Charlie walked toward his front porch he heard Dead End close his door and rev up his engine before driving out of the residential area at a speed of at least 70 MPH. Charlie breathed a sigh of relief that he made it home safely. Little did he know this was only the beginning of a strange and problematic friendship.

* * *

Over the next few months Dead End and Charlie spent as much time together as possible. Dead End realized after getting to know with Charlie that he wasn't too fond of the concept of school. When he researched it the place sounded like an institution where one was educated, but from listening to Charlie talk about it Dead End was beginning to think of school as merely a brig with a closing time. It was a strange and unfair system to say the least, and the kids were just as powerless to ease their plight as Dead End was to escape his fate as a Decepticon soldier. Every time Charlie told a story about one of his teachers Dead End would imagine that their voices sounded exactly like Megatron's.

Charlie himself wasn't all that special on the surface, but the more Dead End got to know the boy the more he enjoyed being in his company. Charlie was humble, curious, and sometimes he could even be funny. Dead End always assumed humans with any sort of hope in their hearts would be a bore, but he had been proven wrong by his new friend.

On this particular evening Charlie had actually fallen asleep while Dead End was driving him home. The boy had stayed up all night preparing for some big test with initials Dead End couldn't quite remember the name of. ASAPs? No. ASATs? Maybe. Either way Charlie had been up for nearly 35 hours, and apparently humans weren't supposed to stay up that long.

When Dead End pulled up next to the driveway he found himself in a bit of a dilemma. He couldn't wake up Charlie, but he needed the boy out of his passenger seat. He considered just dumping the kid on the side of the road and driving away, but humans weren't supposed to be neglected like that, so Dead End scratched that plan. He considered honking for one of the parents, but he didn't really want to talk to them or meet them, so he didn't.

Finally, Dead End settled on transforming very carefully so that Charlie would end up in the palm of his servo. Charlie barely stirred as Dead End quietly transformed out in the road of the suburban area. The dark red mech then peered into the windows of Charlie's house; his purple visor barely giving off any light, until he found Charlie's room. He lifted the window, and then gently set Charlie on his bed.

Once Charlie was safe inside, Dead End transformed and quickly took off into the night once again. As he drove back to headquarters he quietly imagined Megatron giving out a pop quiz to the troops and wearing thin bifocals. Thoughts like that made Dead End's monotonous life seem a bit more entertaining.

* * *

When spring break came Charlie spent as much time as possible with Dead End. He hadn't had a friend to spend his time off with since he was 10 years old, and it made him feel good to know for once he didn't have to vegetate in a chair and play video games he had played hundreds of times before.

He grabbed his backpack so he could wait outside for his ride when his mom called for him. Charlie sighed sharply and unenthusiastically trudged into the kitchen to see what she wanted.

"Oh, there you are Charlie. I thought I heard you stomping through the living room," His mom said placidly, "I see you have your backpack. You going out again?"

"Yeah. D's picking me up and taking me to the mall. I gotta get a new charger for my cell phone and maybe pick up some candy. You need anything?"

"No Charlie, I'm good," His mom replied, "Listen honey, next week I get my two month chip, and your father and I thought we could go out as a family and celebrate. Which restaurant do you want to go to?"

"Denny's, I guess. Maybe IHOP," Charlie shrugged, "D's gonna be here any minute now. I'll see you later."

"You be careful now, son," His mom cautioned him, "I know this D fella's got money and everything, but you can't let him walk all over you. I see the way that kid drives, and if he ain't careful he's gonna get himself killed. I don't know why you never invite him in. I'd like to meet your little friend sometime."

"Um, maybe some other time," Charlie replied evasively, "D's really shy, and he likes to have time to prepare before he meets people. I gotta go now, Mom. Bye."

"Buh-bye," His mom replied before lighting a cigarette and plopping down in a chair at the kitchen table.

Charlie waited outside, breathing in the spring air. He hated evading his mom's concerns like that. Normally he would just be grateful she was concerned at all. She had managed to stay away from booze for nearly two months, and it seemed like she was serious about quitting this time. He wanted to show his support, but at the same time he had his own life and just wanted to have fun with his new friend. The fact that his friend was an alien invader and a giant robot just added fuel to the fire that was his moral dilemma.

Dead End pulled up and screeched to a halt like always, and Charlie got inside as quickly as he could so his mom wouldn't come outside and see that there was no one in the driver's seat.

"You seem winded, Charlie," Dead End observed, "Are you having a spark attack?"

"I don't know what that is, but no," Charlie replied breathlessly, "I just hate it when my mom asks about meeting you and I can't give a clear answer. You probably think I'm just being dumb."

"I don't think your ability to lie is an accurate measure of your intellect," Dead End told him, "If it were then Starscream would be the most intelligent being in the universe. Then again, I suppose he hasn't lied about wanting to kill Megatron and replace him. It is odd that he is honest about the one and only thing he should probably be lying about. Sometimes I don't understand officers."

"That Starscream sounds like a real piece of work," Charlie noted, "Kind of reminds me of Derek from the track team."

"Indeed," Dead End replied noncommittally, "You know Charlie, you're not the only one who evades uncomfortable questions. Just today Wildrider asked where I was going. I told him I was going to ride a unicorn through a rainbow to visit the tooth fairy. I was being sarcastic, but he still believed me."

"He believed _that_?" Charlie asked incredulously.

"I live in a fragging mental hospital," Dead End groused flatly, "Wildrider is merely the most obviously insane. Breakdown isn't any better. He thinks Reflector is plotting to kill him."

"Is he?" Charlie asked.

" _They_. Reflector is three mechs," Dead End elaborated, "They are small, obsequious, and utterly harmless to the other Decepticons. Breakdown only fears them because they transform into a camera. Of all the phobias to have, he's afraid of cameras, optics and eyeballs. Honestly, sometimes it's embarrassing."

"I know all about embarrassing," Charlie nodded sympathetically, "One time my mom mixed her depression medication with vodka. That night she was dazed out of her mind and walked naked all over town. Dad had to pick her up at the psych ward at the hospital when some cops dropped her off there. Looking back on it, it's pretty scary what could've happened, but at the time I was just embarrassed she did that. I am really surprised she wasn't arrested."

"Drag Strip is in the brig right now," Dead End told him; slight amusement in his tone, "He got into a fight with Skywarp, and Skywarp teleported just as Drag Strip was about to shoot him. He shot Soundwave instead and forced that overgrown tape recorder to get his backside rewired. Megatron naturally was unhappy since Soundwave is his favorite, so now Drag Strip is confined to a small dark cell in the lower decks. I almost feel sorry for him. _Almost_."

"It must be nice to have brothers," Charlie commented wistfully.

"Believe me, it's not," Dead End replied dryly, "Motormaster is the worst tyrant I have ever met, and I only exist to be one of his arms when we form Menasor. He's so convinced Megatron favors him, but I can assure you he does not. Megatron only cares about power, and he will never fully trust us because the Stunticons represent an element he cannot fully control. No matter how loyal Motormaster is, the rest of us bring down his approval rating. Menasor will never be a good combiner because the five of us are never on the same page. We're here."

Charlie blinked for a second before he saw that Dead End had driven him to the front of the mall. He got out and was going to ask Dead End where he was going to park, but before he could the Lamborghini quickly drove out into the lot; nearly running over an old lady in the process. Charlie often wished that Dead End would be more careful when he drove, but Dead End was generally apathetic toward his own safety and that of others. It was concerning, but Charlie just did his best to live with it.

* * *

A week later Charlie and his parents found themselves at a Denny's in Central City. He was surprised his dad kept his word to bring them to a restaurant after his mom got her sobriety chip, but overall it was a good day. Charlie got to order a big breakfast platter in the middle of the day and everyone had waffles topped with fruit. His mom was clear-headed and his dad was actually contributing to the conversation. Overall it was Charlie's idea of a perfect day.

After they ate the family of three walked down the street to their car. The spring air was still cool but pleasantly so. Everybody seemed busy, and it was easy to get distracted by all the shops and sounds surrounding them.

Charlie's dad held the passenger door open for his wife, and Charlie couldn't help but chuckle at how silly his parents were acting. She was doing an old fashioned curtsy and calling him a gentleman, and he was calling her flattering but ridiculous pet names. Charlie was about to get in the back seat so they could go home, but then he heard the sound of a crash, and everything went abruptly downhill.

Suddenly the sounds of casual footsteps and conversations were replaced by screaming and running, and a building less than two blocks away was falling down. Charlie and his parents all stopped in their tracks in surprise, and then they saw that out of the wrecked building two of the most massive robots Charlie had ever seen came crawling out.

A police car in the middle of the road transformed into a robot, and Charlie wondered whether it was going to kill everyone. Then he remembered to check for a sigil, and he saw it was an Autobot. He almost sighed in relief, but then...

"Attention human citizens! Leave the area!" The Autobot said over a voice amplifier that seemed to be built into it somehow, "This is an emergency! Decepticon attack! Leave the area! Take cover now!"

"We've gotta get outta here!" Charlie's dad exclaimed unnecessarily, "Everybody in the car!"

Charlie practically dove into the back seat as his parents ducked into the front seats. His dad turned the ignition and took off as fast as their wood-panelled station wagon would allow them. They drove through the street and nearly hit a pedestrian that was running in the middle of the road. They swerved to avoid hitting that person, but there was debris in front of the road that forced them to stop.

"Turn around!" Charlie's mother screamed.

"There's a battle going on behind us!" His father snapped, "Okay, don't panic. We can walk around the rubble and then just keep running."

"And leave the car?" His mother contested.

"It's the car or our lives," His father replied grimly, "Come on, we can do this. We gotta get out of here."

His mother nodded rapidly; her entire body a bundle of nerves. Charlie wasn't feeling any better than she looked. He just hoped the Autobots didn't know about him and Dead End's friendship, or else he'd be killed by any side that found him. Then again the Autobots might just turn him in to the proper authorities, and then he'd be arrested for treason against the human race...

They got out of the car and ran around the right side of the debris. It was a tight squeeze between the rubble and a building, but they managed to get around it. They ran for five minutes in an effort to get away from the combat zone, but then suddenly they were stopped when a humongous mecha blocked their path.

The robot before them had to be at least 75 feet tall, and a single foot took up most of the road. Its red optics peered down at them and every other human on the street with malice. It was made up of several colors, but dominantly charcoal and grey. What really terrified Charlie however was the giant energy sword the horned metallic creature was weilding. It was like looking at a robotic Chernabog.

" _Run_!" Charlie's mother shouted before attempting to run in between the massive robot's legs.

Charlie and his father followed her for lack of anything else to do. If they were going to get stepped on there weren't too many places to hide, so they might as well run. The robot apparently saw them, because a massive hand came down and attempted to grab them! It only managed to grab one however; Charlie.

" _Charlie_!" His father screamed as he attempted to jump up and grab the hand that took his son, but he wasn't quick enough, "Hand over my son, you monster!"

Charlie felt sick as he was lifted off the ground by this huge alien robot. He could barely hear his parents pleas for his return, and his ears popped and stopped up again as he was quickly lifted up by the beastly mech. The right arm was yellow and held the sword, so he was held in its dark red left hand.

"Menasor smash!" The mech's voice sounded like many at once as it made this dark declaration.

" _Menasor_?" Charlie whispered quickly, and then he realized where he had heard that name before, "Wait...Dead End! Wake up! It's me, Charlie!"

Yes, he knew now that the hand that held him was in fact his own best friend Dead End. He had mere seconds to convince the combiner mech to spare him, and he only hoped that Dead End could regain enough control to save him from being turned into paste.

"Dead End, don't do it!" Charlie shouted desperately, "I'm your friend!"

"Errr...Menasor _smash_!" Menasor shouted more insistently, but the grip did not tighten on Charlie, "Menasor strong! Smash...insect!"

"Remember the bridge, Dead End? You said you didn't want to be this way," Charlie reminded him in hopes of getting through to him, "You almost died rather than allow yourself to become a mindless appendage again. You're more than that. Your brothers are more than that too. You guys don't have to do this! Please just let me go! I know you can hear me, Dead End! I don't want to die yet! You've got to wake up!"

Menasor growled and glared at Charlie, and the boy feared that everything he said would mean nothing. His parents were still below the monster, unable to hear him and unwilling to leave him. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity of stillness, Menasor set Charlie down on a canopy in front of a flower shop.

Charlie's father helped him down as Menasor stalked away and continued to destroy the town. Charlie was grateful to be alive, but was still upset that Dead End was still a part of the chimera that was killing innocents and wrecking buildings.

Hours later they made it home, and their neighborhood had been spared any damage by the Decepticons, but Charlie still wasn't over it. Dead End really was a murderer. All that talk wasn't just talk. His best friend was a terrorist, an alien invader, and a killer.

* * *

Charlie waited outside the school for his mom to pick him up. He had gotten so used to riding home in a dark red Lamborghini that it almost felt weird to look for an old station wagon in the school drop-off lot.

Debbie Gibson's mom picked her up from school, and the next car in the line was Dead End. Charlie had hoped his mom would get there before Dead End showed up, but no such luck. Dead End honked his horn, and Charlie shook his head _no_ and stuffed his hands in his pockets to try to ignore the Decepticon. Dead End did not get the message and kept honking, causing everyone to stare angrily at Charlie, so he joylessly trudged up to the car to try to get Dead End to go away.

"Dead End, you can go home now," Charlie said politely in an effort to keep things from being weird between them, "My mom is coming to pick me up."

"Oh? A few days ago you said you wanted to drive by the beach," Dead End reminded him, "Something about metal detecting and 'hotties'. Personally I don't see why you can't get a hot dog somewhere without sand, but I don't really know much about human foods anyway."

"Hotties aren't hot dogs," Charlie corrected him, "They're-, well, *sigh* Maybe I should ride with you. I need to talk to you about something."

"Fine. Oh, and your mother is seven car lengths behind me," Dead End told Charlie.

Charlie thanked Dead End and then went to his mom's car and told her he was going for a ride with D. She told him to be careful and he went back to Dead End. Charlie wasn't looking forward to this conversation, but he also knew trying to avoid the Decepticon would only make things worse.

"So? Do you still want to go to the beach, or is there something less boring we can do?" Dead End asked; clearly not thrilled with Charlie's idea of fun.

"Actually, I...I don't think we should hang out anymore," Charlie said ruefully, "I'm sorry, but after what happened the other day I don't feel safe with you."

"Oh. You saw the news, huh?" Dead End guessed, "You know they blow these things way out of proportion."

"You don't remember?" Charlie asked incredulously, "Dead End, you almost crushed me!"

"You were there?" Dead End asked in mild surprise, but not enough to call it emotional.

"You were Menasor! Well, you and your brothers," Charlie shouted; his voice cracking as he began to cry from reliving the scene, "You grabbed me. I know that arm was you because of the color. I got you to let me go by reminding you of our friendship, but I could tell it almost didn't work. The rest of Menasor wanted to kill me. You _did_ _kill_ a bunch of other people. Dead End, I know life doesn't mean much to you, but it does mean something to me. You hurt people, you ruin lives, and you kill. I don't think we can be friends anymore. I'm really sorry, Dead End."

"We have been friend for months, and I have not changed," Dead End pointed out, "I am the same mech you met on the bridge, and I am the same mech you drive to the mall with and talk about your miserable life with. I'm not the one that changed Charlie, you are."

"What do you mean I've changed?" Charlie asked, "What does that have to do with anything?"

"You liked me when your life was worth slag and everything was awful," Dead End replied with what almost sounded like contempt, "You didn't value life, at least not your own. You thought you were worthless and your parents were ruining themselves and you. I was your friend when times were hard, but now that everything is better for you...you think you don't need me anymore, so you're cutting ties with me. Well, I hope you can live with that when there's no one with you on the next bridge."

"Do you think this is _easy_ for me?" Charlie snapped defensively, "You _are_ my best friend, my _only_ friend. I do care about you, and I wish things could be different. I just can't condone killing people. Dead End, when a human kills another human they are charged with murder and sent to prison forever or executed."

"Or given a medal and a pat on the back," Dead End retorted, "You describe murder, but I describe war. My actions are war crimes. I am not a civilian and I never have been. I probably never will be."

"You could be," Charlie replied hopefully, "You could leave the Decepticons. You could still have a real life and be happy. You don't have to be Menasor."

"Yes, I do," Dead End replied bitterly, "I belong to Megatron. From birth I knew my life would eat slag, but that is what life is. I have to obey Motormaster, I have to obey Megatron, and I have to be part of Menasor. To leave is desertion, but worse than that, it is the end of my brothers. We are useful combined, and would not be tolerated without this ability. If I am truly to live, I would have to kill the rest of my family. Believe it or not Charlie, even I'm not that seditious."

Charlie then began to cry even harder, and the teardrops landed on Dead End's armrest and floor mats. Normally Dead End would complain about Charlie's disgusting organic fluids getting on him, but today it didn't seem appropriate. He could tell from the way Charlie cried that this was the last time they would see each other; their friendship yet another one of Menasor's casualties.

 **The End**


End file.
